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Dessert

Burnt Sugar Cake

A cake made with burnt sugar, butter, eggs, flour, spices, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Burnt Sugar Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the burnt sugar

  1. Combine ½ cup granulated sugar, ¾ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, and ¼ teaspoon cloves in a skillet.

  2. Set the skillet over low heat and stir constantly until the sugar melts.

  3. Allow the mixture to burn to a rich dark brown.

  4. Add ⅓ cup boiling water to the syrup and simmer until all particles are dissolved.

  5. Pour the mixture into a measuring cup.

  6. Fill the measuring cup to the top with cold water.

  7. Let the mixture cool.

Make the batter

  1. Cream ½ cup butter until soft.

  2. Add 1½ cups sugar and continue creaming until light and frothy.

  3. Add egg yolks and cream for another 2 minutes.

  4. Sift together 2½ cups flour and 4 teaspoons baking powder three times.

  5. Take 5 tablespoons of the sifted flour mixture and add it to the creamed mixture.

  6. Cream the mixture for 1 minute.

  7. Add the burnt sugar mixture and remaining dry ingredients alternately to the creamed mixture, beating well.

  8. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites gently.

  9. Do not beat after adding the egg whites.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake in greased and floured layer cake pans at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Set layers together with white icing.

  3. Add nuts to the icing if desired.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake a tender crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps the creamed mixture become light and aerated.
Eggs
Egg yolks add richness and whites, folded in, add lift and structure.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, causing the layers to rise.
Burnt sugar mixture
Adds deep caramel flavor and a rich brown color to the batter.

The step that matters

Burning the sugar to dark brown. Sugar caramelizes and darkens as it heats, building deep flavor and color. Taking it too far turns it bitter and acrid, while stopping too early leaves the cake pale and mild-tasting.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, butter, flour, egg):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, butter, flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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